The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to monitoring and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a method and system for monitoring activity, e.g., hygienic activity of an individual.
Individuals in need of medical attention for a variety of ailments or conditions typically seek clinical treatment from a healthcare provider, nursing homes etc. Such treatment may include a combination of procedures, medications or other therapies to stabilize and/or improve the health of an individual or patient. However, the process of providing clinical treatment brings with it the risk of side effects. One such side effect of significant concern when patients seek procedure-related treatments from a healthcare provider is infections.
Substantial literature exists on infections, including nosocomial infections, which are prevalent in all patient care facilities including hospitals and nursing homes. These infections pose a significant health risk to hospitalized patients by delaying healing, extending the length of hospitalization and increasing the human and financial cost of care. Research reveals that several types of microorganisms can be transferred by hand to live hosts, thereby producing nosocomial infections.
Whether resulting from clinical issues such as contaminated equipment, individual patient health conditions, or other factors, infections can have a serious impact on the stability of a patient's health status and affect their ability to recover from a health condition. As a result, infections related to healthcare treatment delivery represent an increased risk to public health, and create a significant clinical and financial burden to society.
Moreover, due to economic pressure from health care reforms paired and a steady increase in demand for hospital services, hospitals are forced to do more with less. This places emphasis on controlling infection rates which are known to be a major reason for increment of hospitalization length of stay (LOS) and patient readmissions.
U.S. Published Application No. 20100073162 discloses a method for ensuring hand hygiene compliance. The method comprises the steps of sensing whether a person has washed their hands, determining a hand wash state of the person's hands, indicating the hand wash state of the person's hands; and alerting an individual of the hand wash state of the person's hands.